Not Many Positive Things Happening

Issue February 2019

Not Many Positive Things Happening

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Probably, many positive things have not been happening in
this country since KP Oli took office but his Youth Association called Yuba
Sangh leaders want the folks to see the positive things, which are not
available. Yuba Sangh has intimidated the folk singer Pashupati Sharma alleging
him that he called the cadres of Yuba Sangh dogs and the ruler of Nepal
currently their boss Oli the Yamraj. Is it the positive thing to threaten
somebody for sarcasm? Prime Minister Oli instead of safeguarding the freedom of
expression of the folk singer he just went along with his Yuba Sangh. It
indicated that the freedom of expression and the communist rule could not get
along pretty well. So, one of them has to go. For now, the freedom of
expression has gone.

Probably, one of the most remarkable things the Oli
administration had done is the Social Security Fund whereas even more
remarkable thing Mr. Oli could do might be eliminating the bribes and graft so
widespread among the politicians and the bureaucrats. Government officials and
politicians probably including the prime minister have been growing fat, which
has made them unhealthy while common folks have been slimming down.

The song titled “loot-na sa-kay loot kancha” dramatized
the current situation in the country. The song reflects the reality in the
country because everybody in the bureaucracy including the commissioner at the
anti-corruption agency had been looting while the politicians have heyday to
loot as much as possible leaving thousands of development projects unfinished
for years. For example, Raj Narayan Pathak: one of the commissioners at
Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had just quit the
job for involving in taking millions of rupees in bribe.

Prime Minister Oli needed to prove his administration was
without blemish threatening the corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, lawmakers,
contractors, and businesspersons to take strong actions against them if they
were not to stop their illegal businesses. Spokesman for CPN: Narayan Kaji
Shrestha had once said that the corrupt folks needed to be terrified but this
had not happened, yet.

Rather folks like the folk singer Sharma had to accept the
reality of life and had to remove the song from the youtube.com for satisfying
the leaders of Yuba Sangh and certainly the prime minister who was supposed to
run the corruption-free administration. However, Mr. Oli had not been tired of
saying he had the zero tolerance of corruption while taking almost no actions
against the corrupt practices prevailing in the administration so far making
him a laughingstock.

Prime Minister Oli instead of engaging in inaugurating the
statue of Kalu Pandey, who came to loot Kirtipurians in the 18th
century needed to be busy with curbing the widespread official graft. Will it
not be the positive thing for Oli to do? The leader of Yuba Sangh needed to
answer.

Mr. Oli’s Yuba Sangh has threatened to take serious
actions against the folk singer Pashupati Sharma who sang the satirical song,
which reflected the reality, not smearing anybody. Poor singer Sharma had been
so desperate that he simply took out the song from the youtube.com and promised
to change some wordings for making the youth leaders of Yuba Sangh happy. That might
be great for Mr. Oli but it gave the impression of the people in general losing
the right to the freedom of expression.

Some folks rallied behind folk singer Pashupati Sharma at
the Mandala in Kathmandu, and charged the Oli administration with being as
oppressive as the king during the Panchayat period when not a single word
against the king could be spoken. They even said that Mr. Oli was tending to be
a despot. It might have some truth because Mr. Oli had so much love for Prithvi
Narayan Shah and then Kalu Pandey: disgracefully despotic and cruel people.

Some experts have said at the public live discussion with
the leader of Yuba Sangh the AP Center held that it has been worse than the
totalitarian regime to force such a popular singer to offload the song from the
youtube.com and then to amend it; it is nothing less than hitting hard the
talent’s rights to expression. In other words Mr. Oli has been unleashing his
cadres to muzzle even such a talent. Are all communists agreeing on this
matter?

Why have not the people the right to challenge the
disinformation the Oli administration spreading through the state-run newspaper
“gorkhapatra” making it the mouthpiece of the Oli administration? The youth
leaders needed to answer. If the Oli administration had been spreading the
disinformation then the folks like singer Sharma had the right to correct it
through the ironic song. Folks are living in the democratic republic not in the
communist regime.

Why the youth leaders who enjoyed clapping and cheering hard
when Mr. Oli mocked somebody while delivering speeches did not tolerate the
folk singer Sharma’s sarcastic song because the song has said that the heaven
like Nepal has the Yamraj like ruler, and the cadres simply barking like dogs?
Surely, the cadres are not dogs neither the ruler is Yamraj but the singer
simple compared them.

If Mr. Oli were to revive Prithvi Shah and Kalu Pandey,
would Mr. Oli be much different from Yamraj? The youth leaders needed to answer
sincerely because only Yamraj could give a new life to dead persons if we were
to believe in the Hindu sacred texts. Then what is wrong folk singer Sharma
saying Nepal has the rule of Yamraj?

Mr. Oli took the president to the statue of Prithvi
Narayan Shah to honor the despot on his anniversary on January 11, 2019, and
inaugurated the statue of Kalu Pandey on February 21, 2019. Are all the
communists agree on reviving the despots? Only if the answer is yes, then Oli
has done a good job otherwise it has been a negative performance as the folk
singer has sang.

How many more such statues of Kalu Pandey and of other
kings that had successfully kept Nepalis poor and destitute for over
two-and-a-half centuries would be going up, and Mr. Oli is going to inaugurate
them? The youth leaders need to inform the common folks.

It would not be a surprise if the fate of Mr. Oli’s party
would be that of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that had proudly built the
statue of Bhalavbhai Patel: one of the tallest statues in the world at the cost
of billions of dollars instead of building irrigation systems the local farmers
wanted; consequently Mr. Modi’s party faced disastrous results in the recent
State elections held for the five State assemblies in India.

Mr. Oli probably did not read the history of Nepal if he had
then he just ignored the fact that Kalu Pandey was the general of Prithvi
Narayan Shah, who ordered to cut off the noses and ears of Kirtipurians after
he won this state facing six unsuccessful assaults on Kirtipur. Kirtipurians
killed Kalu Pandey for assaulting them. Is Kalu Pandey the hero for Mr. Oli?

Now, the question is whether Mr. Oli is the prime minister
of Nepalis means whether he is the prime minister of the voters who had elected
him and his lawmakers overwhelmingly or the prime minister elected for serving
and glorifying Kalu Pandey and his boss Prithvi Narayan Shah, and insulting the
people whose ancestors had been the victims of cruel Kalu Pandey and Prithvi
Narayan Shah in the 18th century even though most of the today’s
Kirtipurians must have voted for his party CPN?

Is it not Mr. Oli wasting the blood of martyrs who had
sacrificed their lives shedding their blood for ending the monarchy, simply
worshipping the dead general Kalu Pandey and his boss Prithvi Narayan Shah? Why
did not Mr. Oli declare to build a statue of those martyrs who shed blood
during the Madhesh Movement that had made a considerable contribution to end
the monarchy? Why did not Mr. Oli attend the anniversary of the People’s War
that had contributed to finishing off the monarchy not to mention building a
monument to the brave soldiers that had fought for the republic?

With the revival of marking the anniversary of notoriously
cruel Prithvi Shah, and opening up the statue of Kalu Pandey, did Mr. Oli hit
the current republican setup the brave folks fought for, shed blood for, and
ultimately set it up, negatively or not? Are all the cadres and leaders of CPN
agree on what Mr. Oli has been doing to revive the oppressors or not? What the
leaders of Yuba Sangh think whether these things Mr. Oli has been doing are the
negative ones or positive? Tell the people sincerely. These are not jokes Mr.
Oli used to tell.

Whether the communists including the youth cadres
particularly calling themselves belonging to or affiliating with the CPN: the
ruling communist party today think or not the need for tearing down the statues
of Kalu Pandey and of Prithvi Shah that had been the symbols of the foes of the
proletariats, who had been the victims of those oppressors for over
two-and-a-half centuries? If yes why don’t they take out the hammer from their
flag and go to hit those statues so dear to Mr. Oli?

Surely, folks want to see positive things happening in the
country, and the folks anticipate everything positive from the Oli
administration of the two-thirds majority, as the leaders of the Yuba Sangh
want. However, where are those positive things happening in the country, the
leaders of the Yuba Sangh have seen? Tell the common folks what are the
positive things the Oli administration has been doing rather than wasting time
and energy on threatening the folks singer for singing and bringing the things
out of sight to light.

The leader of Yuba Sangh has indicated that the Prime
Minister’s Employment Program is a positive one. Is it so? However, the people
who have the experiences in such programs have said that this program is really
for feeding the political cadres during the election period. Then surely, for
the CPN cadres, the program might be positive at the cost of the taxpayers’
money and at the cost of the entire populace.

What else the prime minister has done positive things? He
opened up the office of the River Transport. It created 16 jobs for the State
officials, nothing more while millions of youths have been moving to foreign
countries for jobs due to the lack of job opportunities in the country. Has Mr.
Oli sufficient money to open up the bridge or to build a bypass canal to make a
waterway for passing boats, as he stated in one of the public speeches probably
sarcastically? Has Mr. Oli the right to laugh at such a serious development
project costing billions of rupees if not dollars, if he is making a fun of it?

The Oli’s agricultural minister has been making a proposal
for punishing those farmers who leave their land unplanted. Probably, the
minister does not deserve to be the minister for agriculture because she does
not understand what is agriculture. If she were to understand the agriculture
she would rather work on providing irrigation water for the farmers to plow
land and grow varieties of crops rather than penalizing the farmers for not
working on farms. However, without water what the farmers would do? The
minister needs to answer the question rather than punishing the farmers for
leaving the land fallow.

The news published in “gorkhapatra” on February 25, 2019
stated that speaking at an event held at the Ministry of Agriculture and
Livestock Development on Sunday, February 24, 2019, Prime Minister Oli urged Nepalis to
develop the habit of eating the locally produced rice rather than the imported
aromatic rice. At least Mr. Oli had not said to discontinue the import of the
aromatic rice.

Mr. Oli in his address to nation said that so many laws
were enacted. However, with the lack of the legal provisions, provincial
governments have been unable to work causing almost no use of the capital
budget that is supposed to use for the expeditious economic development at the
provinces. If the provinces could work fast then they could create a large
number of jobs for the unemployed youths that had no alternative but to go
abroad for jobs.

The news on https://setopati.com/kinmel/automobiles/175764
stated on February 21, 2019 that Prime Minister KP Oli had inaugurated the
buses run on batteries with fanfare on the premises of the Sajha Cooperative
Office at Pulchok in Kathmandu on October 23, 2018, and then the prime minister
boasted that these buses like fishes would lay eggs, and then he rode the bus
from there to his office in Singhdurbar.

The news also stated that since then the buses have been
parked at the Sajha garage because the Secretary to the ministry of transport
did not permit to run them on the Kathmandu roads, as these buses did not meet
the standard mentioned in the agreement the ministry had reached with the
contractor. Probably for the same reason the secretary was transferred from the
ministry to another ministry.

The news further stated that these buses were supposed to
run in Lumbini, and the government purchased them with the assistance of Asian
Development Bank; these buses were purchased for the Lumbini Development
Project for running them from the Bhairahava International airport to the
Lumbini but the airport had not been operational, yet; so the government
decided to run those buses in Kathmandu until the Bhairahava airport became
operational.

The news on “Kantipur Daily” on February 22, 2019 clearly
stated that how far the Oli administration has shamelessly tried to push the
Secretary to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to indulge in
the heinous crime of falsely certifying the Indian buses as the China made. The
news stated that at the farewell function held at the ministry on Wednesday,
February 20, 2017 to say bye to the secretary Devkota, without any hesitation
in the presence of Minister Rabindra Adhikari, Secretary Krishna Prasad Devkota
told the audience that he was transferred to another ministry not agreeing to
certify the electric buses purchased from India as imported from China.

Is it the zero tolerance of corruption Mr. Oli has? If yes
why Mr. Oli did not fire the minister then and there? How long Nepalis have to
live with the wide publicity of disinformation? Is it not necessary for the
youth leaders of Youth Association to say publicly whether such a thing is
negative or positive happening in the country? If they could hit hard the folk
singer Sharma, why not the minister that had pushed the secretary out of the
ministry for not committing the heinous crime of certifying the Indian buses as
the China made?

The State-owned newspaper “gorkhapatra” in the Nepali
language on February 22, 2019 published in the front page the nice picture of
the statue of Kalu Pandey Prime Minister Oli inaugurated at Dahachok at
Chandragiri-1 on February 21, 2019. Instead of opening irrigation systems or
hydropower plants or the highly hyped Melamchi Drinking Water Project that
would contribute to improve the lives of the common folks Mr. Oli opted to open
up the life-size statue of disgraced and killed Kalu Pandey: the enemy of the
proletariats probably Mr. Oli represented. What the heavy irony has been.

Responding to the questions of lawmakers at the meeting
held at the House of Representatives (HoR) to discuss the bill on information
technology on Friday, February 22, 2019, Minister for Communication and
Information Technology Gokul Baskota said the government would prohibit posting
of vulgar and objectionable materials on the social media including Facebook
and Twitter, as the government had been forced to regulate and manage the
social media that had become an integral part of the general public, the news
on http://setopati.net/political/140273
stated.

The news also stated that Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker
Gagan Thapa asked the minister whether the government intended to control
freedom of expression through the bill. “Our prime minister mocks others daily.
So, he is allowed to mock others and the others will be punished for replying
to that?” Thapa asked.

Lawmaker Thapa also claimed that the bill contained many
unnecessary provisions and lacked many necessary ones. He accused the
government of bringing the bill with an intention of curbing freedom of
expression and asked what the government would do if the social networking
sites did not come for registration in Nepal. Minister Baskota did not provide
solid answers to those questions, the news on http://setopati.net/political/140273
stated.

What are the definitions of vulgar and objectionable
materials? The bill needs to clearly define the words otherwise officials would
interpret the words as they like and suit them depending on the situation.

Local governments such as municipalities and rural
municipalities are the most corrupt agencies in the country, the survey
Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had conducted stated
as they made the service seekers to pay “additional charges” to receive
services from the local units.

The anti-graft agency survey report titled “Study on
Corruption and Good-Governance in Nepal-2075” stated that municipalities and
rural municipalities had been the second most corrupt entities after the land
revenue offices.

Rameshwor Dangal: spokesman for the CIAA told the reporter
of The Kathmandu Post that the anti-graft body had been receiving complaints in
increasing numbers about irregularities at the local governments. As many as
2,566 complaints related to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General
Administration were registered with the CIAA in the last fiscal year, the
commission’s Annual Report of 2017/18 stated.

The anti-graft agency report painted a bleak picture of
governance at the local level even after the country adopted the federalism to
ensure people get services at their doorsteps with convenience. CIAA conducted
the survey in the second half of the fiscal year 2017/18 when elected
representatives had already taken office.

"Even after the elected representatives assumed
office, complaints about irregularities at local level have not come down,”
said spokesman Dangal. "We are also receiving complaints that the ward
chairmen have been buying their own dozers and working on projects of local
governments, in a clear case of conflict of interest. We are also receiving complaints
against the elected representatives, especially those who have the background
of contractors. They are using their power and authority to bag contracts for
their own firms.”

After the local elections were held in a gap of 20 years
in 2017, it was largely expected that elected representatives would be
accountable to the people and the governance would improve. However, the survey
has exposed continued poor performances at the local level.

"The local executives have been spending money in
projects which were not endorsed by the local assembly. Conditional grants
provided by the Centre have also been misused at many local governments
although that cannot be used in other purposes except the ones fixed by the
Centre. Local governments are also allocating budget in areas where Local Level
Operation Act does not allow them to do so," one of the officials of the
Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration told the Post reporter
requesting anonymity. "There is also a growing tendency among a number of
local governments to make low-cost estimate of projects so that contract could
be awarded at a lower amount in return for kickback from contractors."

Spokesman Dangal also said that the anti-graft agency
received complaints about local governments spending resources going against
the approved budgetary plan and low quality works of the projects overseen by
the local governments.

However, Municipal Association of Nepal: an umbrella body
of all the municipalities in the country, refused to buy the claims made in the
CIAA report that irregularities have increased at local governments under the
elected representatives.

“People are happy with local governments in most of the
areas as they are getting better services. The issue of irregularities has been
hugely generalized to show all local governments are bad under elected
representatives. It’s wrong to paint all local governments with the same
brush,” said Ashok Kumar Byanju Shrestha: president of the association. “I
think it is an attempt to weaken the local governments.”

What the Yuba Sangh leaders have to say about the
irregularities going on at the local governments where most of the elected
officials are the CPN members. Are these irregularities positive or negative?
Most of them might be positive for the elected officials, who are mainly the
CPN members. Where on earth to find the positive things the recently elected
officials had done for the common folks.

Did not Mr. Oli as the prime minister need to launch
sweeping measures to curb official graft instead of parroting that he has no
tolerance of corruption, and he would not get involved in any graft and would
not let others to involve in? What the youth leaders would say about it?

Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA)
has said that the tendency of submitting fake academic credentials, teaching
licenses and citizenship certificates for joining the government service,
getting promotion in service, and receiving government benefits is on the rise.

“Appointing, promoting and providing facilities to any
person on the basis of bogus or forged certificate of academic qualification
and other documents badly affects the performance and service delivery of an
office. It is also detrimental to the morale of qualified and capable
employees,” the anti-graft body warned in its annual report of the fiscal year
2017/18.

It said that the CIAA had attached high priority to the
investigation into suspicious academic credentials of government employees. CIAA
filed graft charge against 64 government employees including security personnel
at the Special Court in the fiscal year 2017/18 compared to 40 in the previous
fiscal year. An investigation the anti-graft body conducted showed the highest
cases of false academic certificates schoolteachers and police personnel had
been involved in submitting.

Similarly, health workers, technical employees,
administrative employees at the local levels and other employees are also among
the persons joining government service and enjoying promotion and other
benefits submitting fake documents. CIAA has urged the government and the
authorities concerned to verify the authenticity of academic credentials of
candidates applying for the job. “It will have a positive impact on the
qualification system and performance of the concerned offices,” the anti-graft
body said.

CIAA also said the concerned authorities had implemented
only a few recommendations it had made last year. “Making commitment to
implement the recommendation in haste without adequate preparation, lack of
coordination among government bodies, lack of reward and punishment, delay in
implementation of suggestion, lack of effective regulation and strategic plan
in the fight against corruption are stumbling blocks to honesty, integrity and
good moral conduct in government offices,” it warned.

Where had gone the zero tolerance of Prime Minister Oli if
the Oli administration were to ignore the majority of the recommendations CIAA
had made for curbing the bribes and graft at the government offices? Is it the
positive thing, the Oli administration had done, not implementing the
recommendations CIAA had made for curbing if not ending the corruption? Do the
youth leaders need to answer it or not?

In conclusion, it might be correct to say that the freedom
of expression and the communist rule could not go hand-in-hand. The Oli
administration instead of taking folk singer Sharma’s song as a positive
indication has turned back on it and let its youth leaders intimidate the
singer, who had no choice but to quietly pull out the song posted on
youtube.com.

One thing the Oli administration had forgotten might be
the song must have been downloaded, and it had been safely kept for listening
informally, which was more injurious to any administration. The opposition
might produce it and run it during the next election campaign. Then, not only
Mr. Oli but also his CPN might be in a great trouble in the coming general
elections when folks would vote facing the choice between the freedom of
expression and the communist rule. Then who would like to risk of losing the
freedom of expression voting for the communists?